The surprise deal, announced on Monday (August 5), follows the New York Times Co's sale of the Boston Globe for $70 million, and is a further indication of the unprecedented challenges newspapers face as advertising revenue and readership declines.

Washington Post Chairman and Chief Executive Donald E. Graham, whose family owns the paper, said it would be better served with another owner.

Bezos, who has built Seattle-based Amazon.com into a shopping and online technology force over the last two decades, made a small foray into media earlier this year with a small investment in internet news site Business Insider.